Day 22 & 23 - Summer cottage and wiener soup

Sweet Angeline came to visit the family and I on Sunday, bringing candies for the kids from Iceland and flowers for my room =D The family decided to go to Jaakko's parents' summer cottage for the afternoon. Food was prepared, while waiting for Angie's arrival :P And then transported to the summer cottage which was about 20minutes away from here.

Most families here would have summer cottages where they would go to and stay for a weekend or so. And these summer cottages are usually in more remote areas, surrounded by trees and water, i.e. the lake. Deep in the forest, in the middle of nowhere, but still beautiful.

Grandma welcomed us with drinks, which I took and sipped straight away. When my drink was half finished, she lifted up her glass and said something, which I assume it was 'Welcome' or something. Oops, sorry. I was too thirsty :P Will hold my drink until everyone starts drinking next time.

My host family

With the very nice grandparents

Angeline checked out my cam and took a photo of me looking retarded

Sweet peas as appetizers

The interior

The fireplace and the kitchen

Summer cottages are very small too, as the name suggests. Everything is compact and layouts are well thought. Basic necessities are all in the cabin, including sauna, except the toilet. It's a separate hut on another area in the perimeter. As there are no drainage system, the waste are biodegraded by pouring in wood chips.

Business done in the forest

Here's where business is done

The deck. Where you jump from after sauna

One of the many beautiful Finnish lakes

Then it was food time. I tried taking a photo of the kids when they sat together but failed to get a proper/decent shoot of them.

Eliel: Hey, look!
*snap*

Me: Smile!
Eliel: *flashes smile*
Eemil: Hang on *pours himself a glass of juice and blocks Eliel's smile*
Helmi: *shows me her most sour face*

*after a few attempts*
Me: Smile!
Hungry kids: *ignore*

Angie

My food

I always take a second serving at every meal. Not only food is good but because one serving for me is usually not enough since you can only take that much food at one time. Cos during meals, food is laid out in the middle of the table and you take as much food as you want onto your empty plate. Kinda like buffet style but with much less choices. Desserts can only be served once everyone has finished their meals. I'm usually the last one since I'm slow in eating and I eat most. The kids always had to wait for a while for their dessert, if there's any. And I always forget about this. Note to self: must remember to gobble up food faster next time.

After food, the kids went for sauna, came out in their bathing suits to go into the lake. While in the lake, Jaakko picked some freshwater mussels off the rocks. Don't know if they're edible but the Finns don't eat shellfishes. Grandpa once an oyster and it made him throw up. I love shellfishes =(

The kids were complaining cold. It was a very windy day.

If they were feeling cold, I would've frozen up if I got out of my clothes

A quick one before the battery runs out

Helmi trying to be a joker

Stairs leading up to another cabin of theirs

Which was this

And today, I had wiener soup. For dinner. Quite nice actually.

With rye bread and butter

At noon:

Eemil: Can you make something?
Me: I was going to make some omelets.
Eemil: Omelets? Eggs?
Me: Yeah.
Eemil: Nooo...I hate anything to do with eggs.
Me: Okay, what do you want to eat then?
Eemil: I dunno. Bananas? =D
Me: =.= You can't eat deep fried bananas all the time........

So I made banana pancakes.